


Shades and Shadows

by Ice_Eagle



Series: Shades of Dale [2]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fem!Alatar - Freeform, Gen, Ithryn Luin - Freeform, Slice of Life, Slow Build, Worldbuilding, fem!Morinehtar - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-13 13:56:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16019330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice_Eagle/pseuds/Ice_Eagle
Summary: **Sequel toShades of Dale**Bilbo, having made it home to the Shire, is now on his way back to Erebor with Gandalf and his dearest friends and family. While he hopes he will be welcome to Erebor, he's more concerned about Lobelia not setting the mountain on its ear. Lobelia prefers he takes his concerns elsewhere, thanks.Morinehtar's come back to Erebor after a thousand-year absence. Already causing a ruckus within Dale and the Lonely Mountain, she's set her sights on Mirkwood and Laketown. Thranduil is not thrilled about this.Poor Radagast has no idea what is going on.And Bard, who has started to rebuild Dale (slowly, but surely), has seen dark things lurking, and it's not the spirits sworn to follow him...





	1. Bilbo and Company Encounter Mirkwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hobbits make it to Mirkwood. They are not impressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot how to do the name tags--the 'known as' ones with the bar between two names? If anyone could remind me that'd be great. Thanks.

Otho had liked Rivendell, but was glad to be on the road again, which was something he never expected to think about himself when it came to traveling. The elves were courteous and kind, and once Herugar and Sigismund managed to get the kitchens straightened out (by working in tandem with Cook), the food was delicious as well. Rivendell was just...different. Singing at odd hours, the buildings always gently illuminated by the sun or moon, and you never actually knew where you would encounter the elves (or Estel, but he was a young Man child, and could be excused from such strangeness). In the time they were there, it was not uncommon for the hobbits to see elves conversing in the hobbits' rooms on their balconies about the position of the constellations.

All the hobbits wanted to do was go to bed.

And the less said about the Hall of Fire, the better. They had all (even Gandalf!) sworn to keep their antics at those gatherings to themselves.

Needless to say, there was something about feeling different types of land beneath your feet, seeing new sights and camping under the stars. For the most part, they were all having an excellent time, the occasional pangs of homesickness aside. It helped that all the hobbits in the group had grown up together and played together, helping form solid bonds of friendship, and that Gandalf had been known to them since they were tweens. So usually, nothing really caused them any distress.

Usually.

Except when they woke up to a bear looming over their heads.

Lobelia was still mad about it after they had parted Beorn's company days later. While she kept her temper and her manners were immaculate while they were under his roof, she let loose as soon as they were out of earshot. Used to it by now, Otho and the other hobbits didn't say a word.

Except for Bilbo, who didn't seem to have much of a self-preservation instinct anymore.

"A skinchanger! Of all things!"

"Really, Lobelia," Bilbo said soothingly, "It's nothing to worry about-"

"Are you _serious_?!" His cousin shrieked, ignoring the winces of her companions, "He called me a _bunny_ \--"

"He called all of us bunnies," Jessamine "Jessie" Boffin pointed out, "I hardly think-"

Her mouth clicked shut as Lobelia's glare shifted towards her face and she spurred her pony up beside Gandalf. Herugar Bolger joined his wife, Adalgrim "Addy" Took not far behind. Only Sigismund Took, Bilbo, and her husband Otho were riding with Lobelia now.

"Not," Lobelia muttered, "Helping."

"I promise he didn't have any intentions of eating us," Bilbo tried next.

Otho wasn't saying anything. He knew better than to try to reason with Loobie when she was in this kind of mood. The best thing to do was to say silent and exude support. Even if his spouse was being ridiculous. Granted, Beorn was intimidating, and very, very tall, and turned into a _bear_ , for gracious' sakes--

\--okay, she might have had a point.

But Beorn was very kind underneath that gruff exterior. He was generous with his food (and considering they were hobbits, that said a lot), and the bees and the animals (that understood Common! How strange) were _very_ friendly. Sigs had made particular friends with a couple of the hives and a few of the worker bees had trailed sadly after them for a time before turning back to Beorn's house. 

"If you're that bothered over it, Loobie," he interrupted Bilbo's further assurances, knowing that Lobelia would only stew the longer this carried on, and wanting to get past it already. "He's like Farmer Maggot."

Bilbo choked. His wife's eyes widened. Sigismund only coughed.

"They're very similar in temperament," he continued, enjoying their speechlessness, "And we've had peaceful dealings with Farmer Maggot for decades, you know. So when we see Beorn again, if he calls you bunny, just call him 'maggot' in your head."

"That," Lobelia said, voice flat but eyes twinkling, "Is completely nonsensical."

Bilbo was bent over his saddle, trying not to fall off from laughing so hard. Sigismund was patting Bilbo's back, but not faring much better. They had moved under the cover of Mirkwood's trees, and Otho was trying to ignore the clinging gloom that surrounded them. He'd feel much better once their elven escort arrived. And wasn't that just the thing? Elves. He'd never in his life thought he'd see them.

Well, his cousin was Bilbo Baggins. Perhaps he should have known better, what with who his mother was.

Otho only returned, voice as flat as hers, " _I'm_ nonsensical? We just came from a house with animals that walked on two legs. That understood speech. And bees the size of our heads."

"I liked those bees," Sigismund's voice was glum. Lobelia had her head in her hands, her pony following after the others automatically. Otho was very proud of how her horsemanship had improved by leaps and bounds over the course of their travels. Well, everyone's, really.

"We know, Sigs," Bilbo had mostly recovered from his laughing fit, wiping tears from his eyes, "We know. Maybe we can ask him about you transplanting a hive one day."

Sigismund's face brightened, "I'd have the best honey in the Shire! Wouldn't that be something?"

"That's one word for it," Lobelia returned, shifting uneasily as she examined the forest around them, "Gandalf?"

"Yes?" The wizard called back.

"How soon till we meet that escort? I don't like the looks of this forest. There's something..." her voice trailed off and she frowned.

Gandalf dropped his horse back beside them and the riders merged together again, "Ah. I rather thought you all would notice."

"If you mean the sickness hanging about in the air like when blights have rolled through the Shire over the years, then yes, of course," Jessamine's voice was tart, "The trees haven't been properly taken care of in years--even decades?--there are _far_ too many bugs and fungi to support any kind of wildlife here, and something is just. _Odd._ "

Lobelia nodded and the other hobbits indicated their agreement. Bilbo only looked sad and unsurprised, which puzzled Otho until he remembered his cousin had traveled through these woods twice before.

The wizard nodded, voice thoughtful, "Well, this is Mirkwood. It was called the Greenwood, once. One of my cousins, Radagast, has made his dwelling farther in Mirkwood to the south. He aided us in the Battle of Five Armies, but has not been seen since. It may be some time before he can be pried from his home and his lands once again."

"Once?" Jessie asked, eyes narrowed.

"It's been a long time since so many of you Little Folk have made your way through our realm. We are sad that our forest is now thus, but long have shadows ruled in the keep to the south and it has only been just these months past that Mithrandir and the White Council have thrown the Necromancer out of these lands."

Lobelia barely stifled a shriek and the other hobbits startled badly as four elves moved from out of the trees.

One of them bowed to the group before continuing speaking, "Now that that evil is gone, we hope the land will restore itself to its former glory, but it may be years upon years before it is so. Welcome, Mithrandir, Bilbo Baggins. Welcome, companions, to Mirkwood."

Really, Otho thought to himself, What was it with elves appearing out of _nowhere_ all the time?

\---

The hobbits' moods did not improve the farther into the forest they went. Even though it was the middle of the day, the forest grew darker somehow, looking like late afternoon verging to evening. It put all of the hobbits on edge and they were reluctant to get off their ponies. Something about the general miasma in the air made them all wary of exposing their feet to the earth. Bilbo admitted that he had walked through Mirkwood before, but at his friends' shocked looks shrugged and said that after everything he had been through, Mirkwood was the least strange of them all.

Their escort was seemingly unaffected, but Otho hadn't known many elves and already he could tell that they were quite different from the ones they had encountered in Rivendell. One of the elves, Tuor, was talking to Gandalf farther ahead, and Eilian and Indis ranged out on either side of the party, keeping to themselves. The last one to emerge from the trees, Míriel, was speaking with Bilbo, updating them on goings-on since he had last passed through the forest. Otho and the others eavesdropped shamelessly.

"-change has come from Dale and the Lonely Mountain," she was saying, "Already trade agreements are being formed between all of our peoples, and surveying teams have moved to assess Dale and its surrounding areas, while providing supplies to Lake Town for the next few months. With the gold they had received after the Battle, they should be quite well-supplied before winter arrives."

"One can only hope," Bilbo's voice was grim, "I remember that Master as well as you do, my friend, and I hope that with Smaug dead the gold no longer holds such a fascination for him."

Otho shrugged inwardly. Hobbits had less of a need for money and more for good land and companionship. It was the living earth that fascinated them, not the rock underneath it. Currency did move through the Shire, but it was a continuing source of puzzlement for the Hobbits at how so many Men seemed to covet it. Not that that wasn't to say there weren't greedy hobbits, just that Men took it to new extremes they didn't think possible.

Míriel had responded while Otho's thoughts were elsewhere, "Well, they have received the gold, and it is their choice with what to do with it now. And," her voice dropped, eyes darting to Gandalf, "There is even more pressing news. A wizard has been said to come from the East. A woman with a staff and bright green eyes, in blue robes."

"What?" Bilbo's surprise reflected everyone else listening, "How is that possible? Gandalf said he didn't know what became of the blue wizards, and now one of them is _here_?"

Míriel shook her head, "Not in Mirkwood, or at least, not yet. She had been to Dale and is in Erebor now. But with what we have heard, and if it's the same wizard who moved amongst us a thousand years past..." she shrugged helplessly, "Who knows what will happen when she and our king meet again?"

"I'm more concerned about this wizard and Gandalf seeing each other," Otho retorted, "I know if I hadn't seen my cousin in a thousand years there'd be a reckoning for sure."

"I'm even more concerned about the 'thousand years' part," Adalgrim chimed in, "I thought only you elves were the ones that lived forever."

The elf shook her head, "Wizards are--a law unto themselves. As I'm sure you know."

"We know," the hobbits responded in unison, then laughed.

"WHAT?" Gandalf's shout reverberated throughout the group and into the trees. Everyone winced.

"Well, so much for a happy family reunion?" Adalgrim said weakly.

Gandalf turned back to look at them all, face thunderous, "I had planned," his voice an angry rumble, "To introduce you to Thranduil before moving through the rest of Mirkwood. Those plans have changed."

The shadows were growing over their heads, or maybe it was Gandalf looming taller than usual.The trees seemed to bend outward around him and his staff, like a convex lens.

None of them spoke.

"We move through Mirkwood as quickly as possible. It seems that one of my cousins as returned here to the West."

"Okay," Sigs squeaked. Gandalf nodded sharply and moved his horse into a canter. The hobbits urged their mounts after them, and the elves moved to follow in the branches.

Otho and Lobelia exchanged quick looks before following. What was waiting for them when they emerged from the other side?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Morinehtar and Gandalf collide. Well, more of a gentle bump, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Fireside conversations  
> Following: Bilbo and Company arrive in Laketown. So does Thranduil.

"Come on, Nori, keep up!"

"I don't think this is what Thorin meant when he said we should test the Stone's range, my lady," Nori called ahead to Morinehtar. 

They were jogging through Erebor's front gates now, going back down to Dale and Laketown again to find Bard. After having found the Arkenstone's regalia, the Stone literally leapt from Thorin's hand, fastening itself in place and leaving Thorin no choice but to put the thing on. It was a surprisingly simple breastplate in design, with empty fastenings for a cloak on the back, providing stark contrast to the Stone itself in the middle and the dwarf king wearing it. Thorin, Nori, Fili, and the wizard all trouped back out of the Treasury, heading to the Throne room once again, and that was when Thorin made the mistake (or it was on purpose; Nori couldn't tell when his king chose to be inscrutable) of suggesting testing the Arkenstone's (and his, by extension) range when it came to finding the people residing in or on the Lonely Mountain.

It was a couple days later that Morinehtar took that suggestion and literally ran with it, calling back that she was going to go check on Bard, as it had been a bit of time since she had saw him last, and could Nori come too? Nori wasn't sure if Thorin just wanted the wizard out of his mountain while things calmed down, or if he was genuinely curious about what he and the Stone could do, now that they were working together. Probably both. Plus somebody needed to keep a weather eye on the woman. Not that she _needed_ one, per se, but the Smith knew that wizards running amok without witnesses tended to create unneeded chaos.

Hence Nori's involuntary participation as Morinehtar's escort. Not that he actually minded too much. As long as one stayed out of the way, following a wizard about was unexpectedly entertaining.

"Bard!" Morinehtar hopped over the next rock with seemingly little effort before coming to a stop in front of the aforementioned archer. He was standing on the pathway leading up to the Mountain, and Nori paused and glanced back. They hadn't made it that far down, maybe only halfway to Dale, and Bard was up here?

The wizard was already asking that question, "What are you doing here, my friend?" as they stepped towards each other and clasped arms, "I was just on my way to see you. Caused a bit of a dust-up in Erebor and decided to depart gracefully before they tried to toss me out. I'll have to go back eventually, but there are some other folk I need to see. Nori's along as my gentleman escort, don't you know."

"If you call finding the regalia for the Stone a dust-up, then I shudder to know what you think is an actual problem," Nori said dryly as he came moved to Morinehtar's side.

Normally he would keep that information to himself, but Bard was to be Lord of Dale, and an ally besides that. Besides the fact that dwarves can be _terrible_ gossips, and Laketown probably knew about it already. Dwarves were rumored to be secretive, but not when it came to things like this. 

Nori continued, "Besides the fact that you apparently had known about the Arkenstone before Thror had found it last time."

Bard coughed and Morinehtar helpfully thumped him on the back, "What?"

Nori sighed, "It's a long story. We haven't even heard all of it yet."

"That's not the main concern right now, though," Morinehtar interrupted, "What on earth are you doing all the way up here? I thought you were going to start moving supplies and tools to Dale to begin gradual repairs. You were saying something about it when I guested at your home."

Bard winced. Morinehtar's eyes narrowed.

"Bard."

"That was before the ghosts, my lady. All the people of Laketown know is that one minute you are accompanying me and the others to Dale's ruins, the next that--"

"Ghosts appear, and I'm talking to dead people, and I seemingly boot the bad ones out with little effort," Morinehtar finished, looking--not grim, but more serious than Nori had ever seen so far.

"It wasn't little effort though," Bard assured her, "I remember," he paused, "Right?"

Morinehtar considered, "It was, and it wasn't. It was because they were dead, and it wasn't because they didn't want to leave. Spirits can be walking talking contradictions, and it makes banishing them very fiddly. So what's preventing your people from settling in Dale, then? It's not like _I'll_ be living there."

"They seem to think," Bard tried to figure out how to say it delicately, then tossed all caution to the wind and went for blunt, "That I might be able to do the same thing, given that I managed to return with all the members of our party alive and well. And so they don't want to live near a wizard, considering how much chaos you lot seem to bring."

Morinehtar's jaw dropped. Nori couldn't figure out if he was alarmed or appalled.

There was a long silence.

It was broken by the wizard beginning to laugh. Hysterically.

"That is the best thing," she wheezed, "I have heard since I have come West. You! Bard! A wizard! By proximity, of all things!" she kept laughing, "I just can't--the _thought_ of it!"

Bard's shoulders lowered and he exchanged a long-suffering look with Nori, as only those who have traveled with wizards would know. At the sight of their faces Morinehtar howled even louder.

"Gods above," she wheezed, "If encountering _ghosts_ were all it took, don't they realize that practically half the world would be wizards of some sort or other? Oh, my, my, my," she kept snickering and Bard sighed, "I'm so sorry, I can't seem to stop, the look on your--wait, wait," Morinehtar wiped her eyes, a moment of incredulity coming over her face as she stared at the man, "Did you think that you _could_ become a wizard?"

"Gods, no!" he exclaimed, "And I don't even want to! But you weren't around to ask, so how would I know for sure?"

That just set her off again. For several minutes.

"Now look what you've done," Nori's voice was dry, "We're never going to get down to Laketown at this rate."

The pair of them looked down at the wizard, who was sitting on the path, giggling madly.

"Well," Bard sounded resigned, "I am ready to set up camp if we must, laughing wizards aside. Or I could just carry her."

"Please, don't. You have to admit," Morinehtar straightened out her back, still sitting, taking deep breaths, the occasional chortle interrupting her, "That that is pretty funny."

"Mayhap from your perspective, my lady," said Bard, as sardonic as they came, "But not from mine," he paused.

She tilted her head to the side, smirk on her lips, "What?"

"What if," he said finally, "Gandalf had heard about this?"

Morinehtar clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide, "Oh, gods," she said, voice muffled, "I take it back. _That_ is the best thing I have heard since I came West."

"Careful," Nori warned, patting her back gently, "You don't want to set her off again. Your abs are going to be sore enough as it is, my lady."

She shook her head, "Oh, no, I won't laugh any more, I promise. That visual, though," she pressed her lips tight before continuing, voice sounding strangled, "Is going to carry me through some dark times already, I can tell you."

**_"Tell me what?"_ **

A crack in the air and there was Gandalf, staff in hand, standing above her with a look of thunder.

The birds had gone quiet. The wind was still. Bard noted calmly and not at all in a panic that he could hear himself and Nori, who had moved several paces back from the two wizards in front of them, breathe with very little effort, even though they were both multiple feet away from each other.

"Gandalf! Cousin!" Morinehtar's face lit up and she reached up her arms, "Help me up please. Or," a look of mischief came over her face, "Is it Stormcrow now? Or Lathspell? Gods above, cousin, what on earth possessed you to give wizards a reputation as being unlucky?"

Gandalf was still silent and seemed to loom even taller. Morinehtar only shrugged and picked herself up, forming her staff from her two maces to lean on as she did so. They regarded one another, and Bard could notice the differences between them. While they both were older than even he could imagine, Morinehtar seemed to wear her age lightly, unlike Gandalf, who looked like an old man. Weariness wrapped around the both of them like a cloak, but Morinehtar still seemed to carry a palpable sense of joy in the life around her. He raised an eyebrow at Nori, who noting the same, nodded back at him.

"Are you going to loom this whole time?" she said finally, "Because I have a mountain at my back, and I can do it too, but it would be more effective for you if we changed our positions a bit so you would be more intimidating."

**_"Where. Were. You."_ **

Gandalf's voice seemed to reverberate through the ground and up through Bard's eardrums. He and Nori both winced and moved farther back. 

Morinehtar's eyes narrowed, but her voice was light, "Where was _I_ , you're asking, when you're the one who said I needed to go West, Pallando and me? A thousand years," she continued, stepping towards Gandalf, who to his credit didn't give an inch, "of watching over the East, holding fast against the darkness, and you have the gall to be angry at _my_ absence? Where were _you_? You who swore to watch over the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain, the people of Esgaroth, the elves of Eryn Lasgalen? Who said that everything would be _fine_ , that there was nothing to worry about? Just a note, dear cousin, _a dragon is not fine._ A Necromancer, which you _will_ tell me about, cousin, _is not fine_. You who swore to guide Thranduil through the trials of being King, of providing a strong boundary north of Mordor against the darkness, where were _you_?"

The wind, which was still before, started to pick up again, and clouds began to slowly drift from where they were over the mountain, darkening along the way. Nori and Bard exchanged another look and moved back under the shelter of an overhanging boulder, pulling their cloaks out in case it started to rain, and well out of the way if lightning struck. They were, coincidentally or not depending on how much they thought the wizards were raising their voices, still within earshot.

Gandalf's face had softened out of its angry lines, but Bard could see that the blue wizard wasn't done, "Hello, Gandalf, cousin-mine, who I haven't seen for a literal age, it's good to see you again," she said coldly, "I, at least, have done my duty with Pallando to form a bastion against the darkness in the East, but what happened _here_? The Arkenstone was buried again, and I only just now came from aiding Thorin in finding the regalia so he and the Stone can wield their power together. Properly."

"Thorin was not fit-" Gandalf started but cut himself off at Morinehtar's glare.

"That was not for you to decide, you absolute imbecile of a wizard," she hissed, "And neither was it Thror's fault that he found it--or that he had to find it in the first place--or Thrain's fault for using it in the only way he knew how. You seem to have forgotten just what the Arkenstone _is_. It should never have been hidden. It should never have been lost," this time Morinehtar's voice was the one that grew heavy and dark, " ** _What. Did. You. Do._** "

The tension seemed to rise to almost a breaking point when all of a sudden an "I say!" rang out. The four of them looked farther down the mountain where the call originated, only to see a figure rapidly approaching them, faster than they could credit. They jumped off their sled and put their hands on their hips, looking at all four of them, but keeping most of their attention on the two other wizards.

"I say," Radagast said again, absentmindedly pulling off his hat for the birds to nest on his head before setting it down again, "What is this? What is this? I am minding my own business in my own cottage, tending to the mushrooms and life around Rhosgobel now that that dratted Necromancer is gone, when all of a sudden my birds are aflutter because some wizards are making a ruckus up by Dale. Well, I say to myself, it could hardly be Saruman, since last I heard he was back in his tower and unlikely to emerge for some time, and Gandalf would have been escorting his young hobbit friends here to Laketown, and--" he stopped. Blinked in wonder, "That leaves--but aren't you supposed to be--"

Morinehtar turned completely from Gandalf, smiling widely at Radagast, "Hello, Aiwendil. It has been a long time," her voice was a bit wobbly and her eyes bright, "I missed your mushrooms. And your friends," she nodded to the rabbits pulling his sled.

"Alatar!" Radagast breathed and he embraced her, arms tight, "I can't believe you're back. I simply can't believe it. What's brought you here? And in this time? And to this place? Are you not needed East?"

The clouds began to dissipate with rapid speed and the wildlife, sensing danger had passed with the arrival of Radagast, started to make itself known again. Bard and Nori removed their cloaks and stepped closer to Radagast's sledge.

"That's what I was wondering myself," Gandalf rumbled.

Morinehtar shot Gandalf a flat stare over Radagast's shoulder, "No, it wasn't. You were halfway to making us both fight in a duel arcane and overturn the countryside around the Mountain, don't you start. And to answer your question," she moved back from Aiwendil's arms and patted the rabbits pulling the sledge on the head, "A dragon is a creature of the East, and as I had tended the East with Pallando these long years, I thought I ought to come. And it's a good thing I did."

"Really," she looked over her shoulder at Gandalf, who looked slightly abashed, "A _dragon_ of all things. A Necromancer too. Gracious sakes, what a mess. It was only a thousand years, I can't believe you got into such mischief during that time, cousin-mine. We have a lot to talk about."

"Do we need to be here for it?" Nori muttered and Bard couldn't help but agree.

Morinehtar moved her gaze from Gandalf to Nori and Bard, who froze, "Might as well set up camp," she called to them, "I have two of my cousins in my grasp, and there is much we need to talk about under the open sky before heading to Laketown to make things right."

"What do you mean, Alatar?"

Her lips twitched at Radagast's question, and she looked again to Gandalf, "Apparently, after solving that ghostly debacle down in Dale--which really, Gandalf, did you think that was going to solve itself-" he winced, "-apparently since Bard emerged from Dale unscathed with the spirits vanished, the populace of Laketown thinks he's a wizard."

Radagast snorted. Gandalf's face made Morinehtar giggle all over again. Bard just looked chagrined. Nori felt long-suffering.

It was going to be a very long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm breaking up what's happening with the wizards into two chapters--I can't cover all of it in this one, and the next one will have even more dialogue. I want to keep the chapters a pretty even length across the board.
> 
> Sorry for the day-late update. This was a bit fiddly to work with. I'm not entirely thrilled with this chapter, but I have some dialogue bits already for the next part that will put me back on an even keel. Some more editing will be done tomorrow.


End file.
